Future of Robotic Surgery

In the two decades since Intuitive Surgical(Sunnyvale, CA) introduced its “daVinci” robot, the company has placed 2,770 of these machines in US hospitals (roughly half of all hospitals). Looking ahead, Intuitive and others imagine having robots with more sensitive force feedback (for touch), multiple arms going into one port, natural orifice access, a two-pound robot that operates entirely within the body, and relying on machine learning for better internal guidance, especially for spinal procedures and coronary bypasses. MORE